


To Gentle The Monster

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Star Wars Fix-Its [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darth Malak Deserved Better, Darth Malak Redemption, Fix-It, Force Healing (Star Wars), Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Gen, Light Side Revan, Suicidal Thoughts, The KOTOR Cast Deserved Better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:36:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Revan saves Malak on the Star Forge.
Relationships: Male Revan/Bastila Shan
Series: Star Wars Fix-Its [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982210
Kudos: 8
Collections: Canon Error? Apply Fanfic





	To Gentle The Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: It’s been a while since I wrote my Revan, so...
> 
> Call this a writing exercise where I start working through everything that bothers me about Star Wars that I can remember.

“And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing...”

”No.” Even as Revan felt the life force fade from Malak, he knew he couldn’t just let his old friend die. “You’re something, Malak. You’re something...come on, be with me, be with me...”

He could remember learning basic healing through the Force at the Academy. Before the bombings. Before everything. And he poured that energy, there, into healing that stab wound. That fatal wound that he had given Malak. 

He couldn’t just let him die. 

***

”Revan, you blasted fool...”

Even watching as Revan collapsed, unconscious, to the deck of the Star Forge, Malak could not help but wonder why he had chosen to save him, of all people. A man who had started off trying to save the galaxy with his best friend, only to become a monster. A monster with a durasteel jaw. 

And Revan, who was still fundamentally Revan, who had love for so many people after all this time...he had nearly died to save Malak.

Malak knelt next to Revan, scooped him up. Revan had always been small and slight, with a personality big enough and a heart big enough to distract from that. It was only accentuated by how big Malak was. 

Revan, somehow, had given him a second chance to live. 

He didn’t deserve that. He was not worthy of that. 

There was a moment, just a moment, when he wondered if he could take the lightsaber and —

No. He couldn’t do that, even though it was what he deserved. 

***

His Dark Jedi were dead. His droids were dismantled. There were dead Jedi in places. And Malak knew that he had done this, that he had caused this. He and Revan both...

It was approaching the Ebon Hawk that the blue Twi’lek girl in front of it spoke up — she sounded frightened, vulnerable. “Did you kill him?”

”He’s not dead.” Malak squatted in front of the girl; somehow, she seemed familiar. “Just unconscious.”

Bastila approached, casting Malak a distrustful look — a far cry from when they were at the Academy and she seemed to think of him and Revan and Arawn as gods. And at the same time, she hated herself, blamed herself for what _he_ had inflicted on her. 

He was, at least, sorry for that. 

“By and large,” she said, “Malak is not a liar.” A beat. “What did you do to him?”

”He healed me. He was meaning to heal my stab wound but...he overexerted himself.”

Bastila narrowed her eyes. “It...sounds implausible,” she said. “But it’s true. You’re speaking the truth."

She knelt next to Revan. The way she looked...she really did love him. It had been one of many things Malak had preyed upon, when he had been converting Bastila to the Dark Side. 

He was a piece of bantha poodoo, just for that. 

***

”Kid’s gonna live,” Jolee Bindo said — what Jolee Bindo was doing on Revan’s ship, Malak didn’t know. Revan had picked up a strange crew. “Stupid, stupid kid...could have died doing it..."

Malak couldn’t deny that, even as they blasted off from the Star Forge, leaving it to collapse.

***

The brig — for some reason, Bastila seemed to think Malak was suicidal and needed to be put on suicide watch, coaxing Carth into doing it, no less. His lightsaber was removed, his cape, anything he could use to hurt himself. Malak couldn’t help but think that death would have at least allowed him some dignity. 

”Malak.” Bastila’s voice was calm as she faced him in the brig, where he was cuffed. 

”Bastila.” Then, “This...the Jedi really have made Revan cruel, haven’t they? The final insult, before...”

”You know as well as I do that’s not why Revan did that."

Malak glowered at her. 

Bastila continued. “He...I wasn’t there, obviously, to see his change of heart. But I could feel that he blamed himself for what happened to you.”

”So his saving-people-disease strikes again.”

Bastila sighed. "He cares about you."

 _And once upon a time, I would have done anything for him_.   
  
Bastila continued. “I didn’t expect him to save you. If anything, after all you did to me, and others...” She paused. “You nearly destroyed that Twi’lek girl’s life. Mission. She was absolutely distraught. And Juhani, the Cathar...you hurt her too.”

Juhani. 

Malak recognized her. A girl that Revan had saved. That he, Revan and Arawn had saved. She’d looked up to them...and Malak had likely destroyed her innocence. 

Malak’s eye twitched. "It was an act of war...”

”I’m sure those on Taris held no grudges when you razed their planet,” Bastila said sarcastically. Then, softer, “I know your turn to the Dark Side was out of loyalty to Revan. I simply...don’t understand why you did what you did. Who we both were, on this playing field.”

"I...” And now, Malak didn’t know. He wished he did. "I don’t know." Then, “What will you do with me?”

”That’s up to the Jedi Order and Revan and the Republic," Bastila said. 

”You would...leave Revan to the Republic? They will crucify him.”

”Not if I can help it,” Bastila said. 

Malak could at least appreciate her for that. 

”We’ll be on the planet soon enough,” Bastila said. “I...have unfinished business to attend to myself.”

She walked away. Now that Malak thought about it...he, Revan, Arawn, Bastila, everyone, had all been friends once. Once upon a time. Before things went wrong. Before the Mandalorians and the Sith had launched an assault on their innocence. 

Before Revan’s homeplanet, Londas, had been destroyed. 

Before Dxun. Before Malachor. Before any of it. 

It wasn’t supposed to go wrong. But it did. 


End file.
